Over two decades, the fractional (non-integer) order PID (FOPID or PIλDµ ) controller was introduced and demonstrated to perform the better responses in comparison with the conventional integer order PID (IOPID). In this paper, the design of an optimal FOPID controller for a DC motor speed control system by the flower pollination algorithm (FPA), oneof the most efficient population-based metaheuristic optimization searching techniques, is proposed. Based on the modern optimization framework, five parameters of the FOPID controller are optimized by the FPA to meet the response specifications of the DC motor speed control system and defined as constraint functions. Results obtained by the FOPID controller are compared with those obtained by the IOPID designed by the FPA. As the simulation results show, the FOPID can provide significantly superior speed responses to the IOPID.